Bistritza Aleko 2025

I've been so berried in work and engagements lately, that I have time neither for my hobbies nor for blogging. Gaby was visiting us, then her boyfriend joined us and we had some wonderful time together. Meanwhile husband and I have been using every possibility to hike in the mountains, as summer is so short and before we know it, it will be over. I don't want to leave blanks in my diary blog, so here is a short recap of our previous hike.

Last Friday husband and I decided to do a repeat of a route we designed two years ago - from the village of Bistritza to Aleko hut along the Bistritza river and then back to Bistritza along the Yanchovska river. Both trails run through the Bistrishko banishte preserved area.

The trails are picturesque and fairly easy, despite the significant altitude gain.

The major impediment to our progress were actually not the rivers, the steepness or the insects, but the ripe raspberries :) They were really plentiful,extra big and super ripe and sweet. We ate, until we had stomach pains and then we decided to collect some, filling our lunch boxes with soft berries.

Hike info:

Date:  15 August 2025

Destination: Aleko Hut, round trail

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 16 km

Elevation gain: 740 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 5 and a half hours with raspberry picking and eating

Average difficulty: 5 / 10 

The day was a bit cloudy, with some chillness at Aleko hut.

We had our lunch at the hut - tortillas and the hit of the summer - cinnamon cookies.

On the way back we continued to fill the lunch boxes with raspberries, until we got fed up with eating and picking. The trail along Yanchovska river is probably a bit steeper, but very scenic and beautiful, I liked it a lot.

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxer shorts, Burda blouse, Burda hoodie

I: lingerie, Love Notions LDT tunic, Love Notions joggings

As we got home, we decided to make raspberry jam with the berries we had gathered and for our efforts we got four and a half jars of very delicious jam - probably the best I've made so far our of raspberries. The quality of the fruit does matter and these were really superb berries. If we decide to hike there next year, we'll probably should eat less and gather more :)

Bistritza - Aleko 2023

 Last Saturday we hiked on Vitosha along a circular trail from the village of Bistritza to Aleko hut and down back to Bistritza along an alternative track. Both tracks run through a preserved area along two rivers - Bistrishka and Yanchovska.

We've climbed the track along Bistrishka river up to Aleko twice before. It is very scenic and beautiful.

Unfortunately, the bridges have been let to rot and crossing the river was a bit problematic at some places. At the end of the summer the rivers are not full watered, so it was OK, but I do hope the mountain park authorities will take care of this issue soon.

Hike info:

Destination: Aleko Hut, round trail

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 16 km

Elevation gain: 740 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 5 and a half hours with raspberry picking and eating

Average difficulty: 5 / 10 

Basking in the sun. The track runs through the forests and is quite shady.

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxer shorts, Knitpick cargo pants

I: lingerie, Burda Henley blouse, Love Notions Sabrina Slims II

There were still some ripe raspberries and we gathered a small box for a raspberry pie and even an additional raspberry decorated cake :)

We had out picnic at Aleko hut and then took the alternative track down Yanchovska river. This one we had never hiked before.

What a bridge :) There were several such constructions along this route.

The track along Yanchovska river proved to be no less scenic and interesting.

And back to the car to close the circle. Quite a nice, satisfying hike!

Peak Golyam Kupen

Yesterday was another super hot day in the city, so we decided to seek a bit of freshness in the alpine parts of Vitosha. We started very early in the morning and about 9:00 we were at Aleko hut - and the place was already crowded! Probably because of the pandemic and the troubles and restrictions on traveling abroad and resorting on foreign seas, but this year the seaside and the mountains are packed as never before.

:We started from Aleko and hiked to the peak to the right on the photo - Golyam Kupen (1942 m).

:The path is very easy, well marked and panoramic, with views to Sofia and lots of mountains, from Plana and Lozen to Rila and the Balkans.

 

:The steep slopes of Golyam Rezen, one of Vitosha's peaks that is most prominent from our part of the city

:The final destination of our hike - peak Golyam Kupen. It is an easily accesible peak, but very rarely visited, as there is no distinct trail to its top.

:Golyam Kupen up close - lots and lots of broken rocks and no trail. We hopped like goats from rock to rock until we reached the top.

:A view to the plateau and peak Skoparnika from the top.

:However, once on top, we realized we were on the wrong top :) - the peak consists of three consequitive rocky tops and we were on the first of them.

 

: So, we had to go down a bit, up the second small top, down again and up the final highest top with the designation pyramid.

:Views from the top to Sofia and the surrounding areas up to the Balkan mountains

:And back to Aleko. On the way back we gorged ourselves on wild raspberries as much as we could and then some :) The berries we just in season, ripe and sweet and plenty. It was a perfect hike!